Travel - Pocketful of Joules

47 Hours in Savannah

I was asked a couple weeks ago to fill in for one of my co-workers at a conference in Savannah, Georgia. I pretty much jumped at the chance because I had just been snowed in the house for 4 days with a cranky 2 year old. Also, I figured that Savannah would give me the chance to experience some warmer weather AND a bed all to myself.

Of course, I had no idea that I’d come down with the stomach bug from hell on Wednesday morning. It was the most LITERAL 24 hour bug I’d ever had – lasting from exactly 5am on Wednesday until 5am on Thursday when I woke up for my flight. One moment I was curled up in bed fighting off chills, fever, aches and another visit to the bathroom… the next minute I sat up, swayed a little and thought, “Wow, I don’t feel like I want to die anymore!”

So, off to the plane I went. Unfortunately, there are no direct flights from BWI to Savannah, so I had 2 flights with a ridiculously small layover to get from one flight to the next. The flights were pretty short too; however, I did have enough time to pick my two favorite items out of the Sky Mall catalog.

Winner for “Who Buys this Stuff?” is the Decorative Toilet Flush Handles in the shapes of dolphins and seashells. Yes, these are actually a thing and they sell for $19.99! My favorite part of the description is a tie between the line “to withstand the most demanding flushing needs” and that these handles will “simply add something that will make friends and family members say, Wow!”

Wow, indeed.

Winner for “Why this Combo, WHY?!” is the Bidet Sprayer/Digital Accessory Cady/Toilet Paper Stand:

Because OF COURSE you’d want a bidet to also hold your iPad. Duh. Also, am I confused that a bidet is to wash your sassy downstairs bits after using the toilet? Because, the picture shows someone washing their leg and… that seems a bit excessive, right?

Anyways, a truck ride + a shuttle ride + two short flights + a taxi ride and I finally ended up at the Hyatt Regency in Savannah. I only had to work for a couple hours that evening, so I was looking forward to doing some exploring.

It was cold and rainy though, so I figured that was the perfect excuse to order room service and eat it while snuggled in bed with a new book for my kindle (Attachments by Rainbow Rowell, suggested by my buddy Katie at Words for Worms).

The plan for Friday was to hang out at my work booth all day. Which would have been fine, except my box of supplies didn’t show up until 2pm, so I was rocking out at an empty table for most of the day.

Yes, I am actually that pale. I mean, part of the problem was the light shining in… but I could use some time in the sun (preferably on a beach with a frosty drink).

I had a 90 minute break for lunch, so I took the opportunity to check out The Paris Market. I had heard so much about it online and couldn’t wait to see it myself. Only to realize once I got there, that I had actually been there before (and loved it) last time I was in Savannah about 7 years ago! It’s like a beautiful French version of Anthropologie and I pretty much wanted to buy EVERYTHING there.

Or just move in to the store for the rest of my stay.

I resisted buying everything and walked away with only two purchases – a pretty scarf for myself (picture further down) and a signed copy of Scampering Through Savannah for Jack.

I then stopped in a random storefront restaurant for lunch and was BLOWN AWAY with the BEST chicken fried rice I’d ever had in my entire life. If you’re ever in Savannah, go to Aroy-Jung Asian Fusion because it totally rocked my world.

After stuffing myself full of ricey goodness, I returned to the exhibit hall to hang out by my empty table for a few more hours. That evening was my last chance to really explore Savannah before my morning flight, so I mapped out my attack so I could be sure to hit as many places as possible before they closed. For some reason, many of the shops I wanted to visit closed at 6pm (even on a Friday night) so as soon as the conference ended at 5pm I ran up to my room, changed my clothes, and ran back out the front door.

Of course, before I ran out I had to take a picture of my new scarf from The Paris Market, STRIPES EVERYWHERE! And no, I haven’t gotten rid of my bangs… I just didn’t get a chance to trim them before I left due to the stomach bug.

Within my one hour deadline, I was able to make it to all of the stores on my must-see list before they closed. My favorite was Red Clover – the salesgirls were so incredibly friendly and the clothing was gorgeous. I could have ended up with an entire bag full of jewelry, but only purchased one shirt that was SO SOFT that I couldn’t resist it (it’s this one). The store has an online shop, so I’m definitely going to keep it on my radar.

I also enjoyed The Salt Table and sampled a ton of different flavored salts and sugars. My favorite was the coconut sugar and I’m kicking myself for not buying some to put in my morning coffee.

While I was walking around town, I made it a point to stop by Leopold’s Ice Cream and wasn’t sorry that I did. I had a small cup of their Chocolate Chewies & Cream ice cream and it was amazing. So CREAMY and the chocolate chewies were the perfect addition. I’m kind of craving some now actually…

Even though I’d just had ice cream, I figured that it was a good time to grab some dinner and went by Rocks on the River at the Bohemian Hotel, which was right next to my hotel. I have to send a shout out to my wonderful bartender, Amy, who made me a delicious Champagne Cobbler. YUM.

I also had their white pizza, which was super yummy. Lots of cheese, garlic and pesto – which is a perfect choice for a girl going back to her hotel room alone. Not that my husband would have minded the garlic breath, he would have probably devoured the leftover pizza and smelled just as bad!

After my dinner, I was ready to go back to my room to warm up (and finish my book) but still needed to get a souvenir shirt for Travis. We have a tradition that I buy him one from every business trip I go on, which ironically started with a trip to Savannah 7 years before. Well, the shirt I bought him on that trip was worn so many times that it has holes, so I bought him an almost identical shirt at a shop on River Street.

And then I was DONE.

So done. I trudged back up to my hotel room, threw on my pajamas and wrapped myself in blankets with my kindle for my last night on my own before returning to normal life. I was up by 8am, packed up my little suitcase and got home on Saturday afternoon.

When I opened the front door, I heard “oooh, who do you think is home?” and was then greeted with a running hug from Jack. The perfect end to a pretty great trip!

Have you been to Savannah? Did you think that everyone was insanely nice? What are your favorite things to purchase when you’re looking for souvenirs?

Disclosure: There are a lot of links in this post, but only one is an Amazon affiliate link (for the book). Pocketful of Joules is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to amazon.com. All the rest of the links are just to make your life easier if you’re planning to visit Savannah!

Celebrating our 5th Anniversary in Hershey Park

Each year on our wedding anniversary, we like to take a little vacation away. We’ve previously gone to Jamaica (honeymoon), Deep Creek Lake (year 1), Universal Studios (year 2) and a Caribbean cruise (year 3). We had planned to go to Atlantic City for an Oktoberfest last year (year 4), but that trip was cancelled at the last minute because everyone got sick.

This year, we decided to do something that was fun for the whole family… Hershey Park. So we left town on Friday after work and spent the weekend in Hershey, Pennsylvania. The park was opened especially for their Hershey Park In the Dark celebration, so the whole park was decorated for Halloween!

Instead of giving you a play-by-play of each moment of the weekend, let’s just talk about some highlights and share some pretty pictures…

The Good
We had an awesome time at the park and Jack LOVED the rides. I had dressed him up in a lion costume (from TJ Maxx for less than $20) and we could not go 5 feet without someone complimenting him. What can I say; I made a pretty darn cute kid!

It was nice to just spend a weekend together as a family, without work, DIY projects or any other distractions hanging over our heads. It was really great watching Jack experience rides for the first time and the weather on Sunday made it the perfect gorgeous fall day. A lot of kids were in costume and they even had Trick or Treat activities in both the park and the Hershey Story museum.

Also under the “good” is our dinner at the Hershey Grill. So. Darn. Good. I had the Crème Brulee Martini and if I could have licked the glass, I would have. Actually, I DID lick the edges of the glass where it was dipped in deliciousness… but that’s totally acceptable behavior.

The Bad
Tantrums. So many tantrums. Because of the excitement of being in a new place and the lack of privacy in the room, Jack didn’t get any naps over the weekend. So yeah…there were tantrums. And tears. And instances of head-butting. You know…normal behavior for an overtired toddler.

This isn’t a tantrum… Jack just likes licking things.

Even worse than a grumpy toddler is a grumpy mommy. When we tried to go to sleep on Saturday night (around 9:15), we found out how THIN the walls are at the hotel. Every 10 – 15 minutes from 9:30 to midnight or so, another family screamed their way down the hallway, many times stopping right outside our door to make their plans for the next morning.

Loudly.
With lots of yelling.
LOUD yelling.

I strongly considered calling reception to have them do something about it, but each screaming conversation would last about 5 minutes until they moved on…only to be replaced by another family’s yelling 10 minutes later. I have no idea how Travis and Jack slept through this, but I’m really happy they did because I had NOTHING left to give at that point.

So there you go, our 5 year anniversary celebration. It was a big change from previous year’s, but fun in its own way. I remember 5 years ago we thought that a trip to Hawaii would be the perfect way to spend our fifth anniversary. Now I’m thinking that might be a great 10 year anniversary spot… for a GROWN UPS only trip.

We haven’t actually been away without Jack since he was born. Since my mom helps us out by watching him three days a week, we wouldn’t want to ask her to do more on the weekends. There will be a day where we can go away alone though… right?!

How old was your kid when you were able to go away for a weekend on your own? Do you have an anniversary tradition that you keep up every year?

Just so you know, this was NOT a sponsored post. All thoughts, comments and complaints are my own. However, we did get free tickets for Saturday’s visit to Hershey Park in the Dark. We liked the experience so much that we purchased additional tickets to go back on Sunday.

This is YOUR BlogHer post… of what you wanted to know about BlogHer

Since I wrote a few posts on my first BlogHer experience last year and also already did a picture post of some fun from this year’s event, I figured I’d just keep my BlogHer breakdown easy. So,over on my Facebook page I asked what everyone ACTUALLY wanted to know and got some great questions to answer…

Talk about thermonuclear prostenigation. Then talk about how you had a sauuuuusaaaage. (Kari)
I googled “thermonuclear prostenigation” and it’s totally not even a real thing. So there. As for my sausage eating, one of my goals for visiting Chicago was to have an actual Chicago-style hotdog (I missed out when I visited Chicago last year).

I was super happy that after a long day of conference sessions and not enough food, my friends and I ended up at Portillo’s… which is apparently THE place to go for sausage and hotdogs. We may look all ladylike in this picture, but we devoured our meals like we hadn’t eaten in WEEKS. Oh and I yelled out something terribly inappropriate, because that’s how I roll.*

What surprised you about this year’s event (Bryanne)
How incredibly different my experience was from last year’s BlogHer. Last year I had only been writing my personal blog for about a year and a half and was still kind of flailing around. I hadn’t really made any contacts before the event, so much of the time I was trying to reach out to make new friends but I wasn’t very successful. I also had a 5 month old at home, so instead of going to the parties at night I retreated to my room and rolled around in the bed while reveling in my freedom.

This year I felt MUCH more prepared. Not only have I been writing my personal blog for longer, but I also launched a successful blog at my work. I made a few really good bloggy friends over the past year and was incredibly excited to spend some time with them in person. Not only did I attend every single session that I could (and took lots of notes), but I also went to almost ALL of the parties, including some sponsored parties. All in all, my experience was much better than my first year and I wish I could do it all over again next weekend. After I get some sleep, of course.

Will going to BlogHer make you a better blogger? Was it worth the time and expense (Lillian)
Short answer: yes.

I’ve been working in marketing for almost 15 years now, so believe me when I say I’ve been to A LOT of conferences. However, if you approach the event with an open mind you will get a lot out of it.

Obviously you try to attend conference sessions that will educate you in the areas where you are lacking. But sometimes it’s a good idea to go to a refresher on something you think you already know. Many times I will still get a couple good nuggets of information.

Even if I’m not learning anything from a session, I still study how the speaker is presenting the information. If they have a really great Power Point, I can get ideas on how I can improve our presentations at work. If the presenter has a really engaging ‘ice breaker’ I can then copy it for a work event. Let’s say everything about the presentation is horrible? Well then, I know what NOT to do!

I also really enjoyed the expo hall and not just because it was a crazy free-for-all of giveaways. It’s really cool to be able to see which booths are attracting visitors, which promotional items were snapped up first and who was successful at using iPads to build their mailing lists.

As for blogging specifically, my favorite session was on SEO with real-life tips on how to improve both my personal and professional blogs. I made some great contacts at different companies that will not only benefit me, but benefit my readers. Lastly, I connected with my fellow bloggers on a one-on-one basis, which can then turn into some fantastic guest posting opportunities. Oh yeah, and I had a CRAPLOAD of fun, which makes Joules a happy girl.

If you could plan all the keynote speakers/workshops who and what topics would you choose? (Bryanne)
Wow, this is a great question! Let’s see, if I could choose keynotes for a future BlogHer conference I’d pick:

Jenny from The Bloggess, because she’s an amazing and inspiring blogger who has MADE IT;
John and Sherry from Young House Love because they seem to have figured out how to juggle work and home life so well;
Tina Fey, because she’s smart, beautiful, funny and successful;
Ellen, because I think it would be fun to dance with her;
Oprah, because maybe she’d give us all cars; and
Train, because it is one of my life DREAMS to sing with Pat Monahan.

I’m not really sure why I assume that if I pick the keynote speakers that I’ll be able to meet/dance with/sing with them all… but that’s how it plays out in my head.

As for workshops, I’d love to learn:

Practical tips for connecting with your audience – but not connecting SO MUCH that you end up with a stalker.
How to use Facebook as a blogger and actually get to your entire audience (instead of 20% of those who “like you”)
More SEO tips. Lots, lots more.
How to make the jump from small blogger to huge superstar (if I could get this in 5 steps, that would be great).
Statistics behind using social media and what actually works (Facebook, Twitter, G+, Pinterest, Instagram, etc).
Making the leap from blogger to author.
So much more! I want to learn EVERYTHING!

I really enjoyed attending BlogHer this year and I hope that I’ll be able to go again next year. I feel like each year I build on my foundation of information that I’ve already learned. Which means 10 years from now I’ll deserve a Queen of Blogging crown, right?!

If you have a question about BlogHer, feel free to ask it in the comments and I’ll be sure to respond!

*Alcohol might have also been involved.